The LeBron James - 21-22 Regular Season Thread - New Thread Soon Part 2

[homecourtloss]

Lebron looked gassed there. 1-6 to finish, missed these two free throws.Lakers back to .500. Should be way above if not for so many blown leads.

[MisterHibachi]

Frustrating game, but a win is a win. AD should fix many of these rebounding issues hopefully.

[trickshot]

They didn't respect the Reed matchup. When a big comes into a game like that just play Dwight. It's not worth the energy output having Lebron battling that. It took its toll and showed in the end. The extra spacing isn't even worth it when Westbrook plays that bad. Just saying in case the situation repeats in the playoffs, which they'll totally make.

[Run DLC]

Vogel sucks

[Greyhound]

They didn't respect the Reed matchup. When a big comes into a game like that just play Dwight. It's not worth the energy output having Lebron battling that. It took its toll and showed in the end. The extra spacing isn't even worth it when Westbrook plays that bad. Just saying in case the situation repeats in the playoffs, which they'll totally make.

The Lakers have resorted to being a gimmick team. This LeBron at the five stuff is stupid. I understand doing it against certain matchups, but every game?

I just don’t get this coaching staff. They go from one pole to the next (it’s all or nothing). There appears to be absolutely zero stops in between .

They start the season with two big lineups (insisting on playing Jordan). Then once the pressure to win got too great, the response was to just get rid of all the bigs.

I understand getting rid of DJ. That move was a no brainer. What I do not understand is why Howard is being treated this way.

Why can’t the Lakers start Dwight and play him a total of 14-20 minutes? There would be plenty of time available to play (and close) games with smaller lineups.

…

It appears that the decision has been made to bench all the bigs just to keep THT in the rotation. That is the guy that needs to be benched. He provides absolutely nothing and continues being force fed minutes he does not deserve.

Is this so hard:

Westbrook
Bradley
Ariza
James
Howard (for 14-20 minutes)


Monk
Reaves
Johnson
Anthony
James (Jordan for 6-10 minutes against big teams).

[Greyhound]

Frustrating game, but a win is a win. AD should fix many of these rebounding issues hopefully.

Howard could help many of those issues, right now.

[colts18]

Neither LeBron or Melo contested one shot at the basket all the game. And I can't recall LeBron jumping on defense for a contest or a rebound all game. The LeBron/Melo at the 5 lineups are a complete disaster defensively. That was one of the worst defensive efforts I've ever seen in a game. The Lakers are lucky they pulled that game. The TWolves doubled the Lakers Rebounding output: 56 rebounds to 28 Lakers rebounds.

[zimpy27]

Neither LeBron or Melo contested one shot at the basket all the game. And I can't recall LeBron jumping on defense for a contest or a rebound all game. The LeBron/Melo at the 5 lineups are a complete disaster defensively. That was one of the worst defensive efforts I've ever seen in a game. The Lakers are lucky they pulled that game. The TWolves doubled the Lakers Rebounding output: 56 rebounds to 28 Lakers rebounds.

Wolves shot 23.7% from 3 and only had 16 FTs..

I think some credit for defense needs to be given.

[Heej]

Yeah it's hard for me to take LeBron's stats seriously when he's playing the 5. It's just inflating his offensive numbers at the expense of legitimate defense.

[nzahir]

Went to my 1st game of the year and here is a recap from what I saw:

The good:
Even with an okay shooting night, Lebron was still pretty good and is able to control the pace and set guys up so well

Monk has a good connection with Lebron. If he cut down a bit on some dumb shots, he would be a lot better off.

Melo and Avery were hitting there shots, big difference for our vets when we get rest

Cons:

Vogel is legit a moron (but somehow Fizdale is even worse)

Reid was killing us down there and he made no adjustments. Dwight should have been in after a few of those offensive boards or easy post ups

Russ was a DISASTER.

He had 9 TOs (was 10 earlier) and he caused two more iirc. Many were clearly awful ideas or just carelessness.

That is legit giving up at least 10-20 points from just being dumb

You can't depend on a guy like this and I had no idea why they went away from the Lebron and Russ pick and roll

THT is such a bad fit, needs to go if we are keeping Russ.

There was a play when Lebron drove late in the 4th and there were legit 7-8 bodies in the paint

Other thoughts:

Stanley Johnson is meh, gives effort and is at least a taller body, but can't shoot well. Don't mind keeping him for depth if no other option, but should try to get an upgrade

No idea why Ariza only played 12 min

At least we won, but we should be dominating these teams

[nzahir]

Yeah it's hard for me to take LeBron's stats seriously when he's playing the 5. It's just inflating his offensive numbers at the expense of legitimate defense.

He did play some decent D when he had to, stripped Edwards late, stopped Reid a couple of times (when nobody else could and Frank didn't have the IQ to put in Dwight)

But lazy help D and rebounding tonight mostly, lot of pressure on him

[Greyhound]

Neither LeBron or Melo contested one shot at the basket all the game. And I can't recall LeBron jumping on defense for a contest or a rebound all game. The LeBron/Melo at the 5 lineups are a complete disaster defensively. That was one of the worst defensive efforts I've ever seen in a game. The Lakers are lucky they pulled that game. The TWolves doubled the Lakers Rebounding output: 56 rebounds to 28 Lakers rebounds.

The Lakers played with New Years celebration legs this game. It’s not a true representation of how they have been playing of late.

That having been said, I am all for playing “switchy”, with one true big. I am not on board with playing LeBron and Melo into the grown playing as small as they are playing.

The initial defense is OK, but the rebounding is so bad that it tanks the defense entirely.

Starting three 6’3” players and two big wings multiple games in a row is simply ridiculous.

[Greyhound]

Yeah it's hard for me to take LeBron's stats seriously when he's playing the 5. It's just inflating his offensive numbers at the expense of legitimate defense.

That’s basically what Durant did in the playoffs last season.

The stats are serious, so long as they register in the career book. LeBron is an old player that has no business being as good as he still is. He is in bonus mileage territory now. At this point, I don’t care how LeBron gets his points. He could be playing with industrial springs strapped to his sneakers for all I care.

In all seriousness, LeBron at the five is not sustainable and needs to come to an end.

[zimpy27]

Went to my 1st game of the year and here is a recap from what I saw:

The good:
Even with an okay shooting night, Lebron was still pretty good and is able to control the pace and set guys up so well

Monk has a good connection with Lebron. If he cut down a bit on some dumb shots, he would be a lot better off.

Melo and Avery were hitting there shots, big difference for our vets when we get rest

Cons:

Vogel is legit a moron (but somehow Fizdale is even worse)

Reid was killing us down there and he made no adjustments. Dwight should have been in after a few of those offensive boards or easy post ups

Russ was a DISASTER.

He had 9 TOs (was 10 earlier) and he caused two more iirc. Many were clearly awful ideas or just carelessness.

That is legit giving up at least 10-20 points from just being dumb

You can't depend on a guy like this and I had no idea why they went away from the Lebron and Russ pick and roll

THT is such a bad fit, needs to go if we are keeping Russ.

There was a play when Lebron drove late in the 4th and there were legit 7-8 bodies in the paint

Other thoughts:

Stanley Johnson is meh, gives effort and is at least a taller body, but can't shoot well. Don't mind keeping him for depth if no other option, but should try to get an upgrade

No idea why Ariza only played 12 min

At least we won, but we should be dominating these teams

Some good takeaways.

- Russ was horrid tonight. I usually defend the guy but this game was bad.
- Vogel is fine. He is intentionally keeping it small to make sure the the learns to play through struggles and work harder on rebounds.
- THT was good tonight I thought, he waa.hustling hard. His shot sucks but he was doing some good things. I would be keen to see THT or Russ moved though.
- Johnson is very limited offensively but a great defender and hustle player. I think he will work really well with big 3 though because he is low usage on offense butnworks hard everywhere else.

[dcstanley]

Yeah it's hard for me to take LeBron's stats seriously when he's playing the 5. It's just inflating his offensive numbers at the expense of legitimate defense.

Don't see it as inflating his offensive numbers. With two of Westbrook, THT, and Stanley Johnson often on the floor, these lineups aren't really providing as much spacing as you'd expect with an uber small ball lineup.

[Slava]

Lakers are leading the league in pace by a healthy margin, which isn't something you'd think given all the narrative about roster age and when you have Russ throwing turnovers for fun, no wonder the offense sucks. For all the Caruso lamenting, the Lakers defense is hardly different from Chicago's but Chicago's offense is so much better thanks to DD. Even with his limitations, he is a low turnover player and maybe the fit was always going to be questionable in the playoffs but that one hurts more choosing Westbrook over him.

[zimpy27]

Lakers are leading the league in pace by a healthy margin, which isn't something you'd think given all the narrative about roster age and when you have Russ throwing turnovers for fun, no wonder the offense sucks. For all the Caruso lamenting, the Lakers defense is hardly different from Chicago's but Chicago's offense is so much better thanks to DD. Even with his limitations, he is a low turnover player and maybe the fit was always going to be questionable in the playoffs but that one hurts more choosing Westbrook over him.

Yeah Caruso, KCP, DeMar, LeBron, Davis could have happened..

[dcstanley]

So is Collison done? He looked like he could have been a solid contributor once he got his legs under him.

[McBubbles]

I think I've been overestimating / overrating Frank Vogel thus far. He's an elite defensive coach and that's literally it. He's bad at everything else. Offence, XO's, adjustments, and leadership (as evidenced by the teams effort woes imo).

He was asked why he didn't put Dwight or DJ in despite their rebounding struggles and he said and I quote "If we're gonna play this style [micro-ball] it's an area we have to learn to be better".

Ignoring the fact that implicit in his statement is the admission that this gimmicky bull **** is going to be a main stay going forward, which is awful, there's no **** "learning" about anything.

Why in the ****, would you put the now injury prone, league leader in minutes having, 37 year old Lebron James who in the past 4 years has missed 71 games, in the most important defensive position in basketball, that's also the biggest hustle position in basketball, and the most contact heavy / injury prone position in basketball?

Why in the ****, would you put a 37 year old Melo, who was never known for his conditioning or putting in effort on defence anyway, and is currently was so washed on that side of the ball that he's going to be a walking L come playoff time, in the most important defensive position in basketball, that's also the biggest hustle position in basketball, and the most contact heavy / injury prone position in basketball?

Is this dude trying to get fired? You can't out "learn" being 37 years old and in your 19th season, what the **** ****? The 7'1 Kareem didn't even put max effort on defence at 37 but you expect the undersized LeBron or Melo to? Lmao.

****, you make accomodations for AD, a 28 year old, 6'11 man when he doesn't want to play center, but just tell Lebron to stfu and suit up

Lebron's 100% gonna get injured again at this rate.

[Slava]

I think I've been overestimating / overrating Frank Vogel thus far. He's an elite defensive coach and that's literally it. He's bad at everything else. Offence, XO's, adjustments, and leadership (as evidenced by the teams effort woes imo).

He was asked why he didn't put Dwight or DJ in despite their rebounding struggles and he said and I quote "If we're gonna play this style [micro-ball] it's an area we have to learn to be better".

Ignoring the fact that implicit in his statement is the admission that this gimmicky bull **** is going to be a main stay going forward, which is awful, there's no **** "learning" about anything.

Why in the ****, would you put the now injury prone, league leader in minutes having, 37 year old Lebron James who in the past 4 years has missed 71 games, in the most important defensive position in basketball, that's also the biggest hustle position in basketball, and the most contact heavy / injury prone position in basketball?

Why in the ****, would you put a 37 year old Melo, who was never known for his conditioning or putting in effort on defence anyway, and is currently was so washed on that side of the ball that he's going to be a walking L come playoff time, in the most important defensive position in basketball, that's also the biggest hustle position in basketball, and the most contact heavy / injury prone position in basketball?

Is this dude trying to get fired? You can't out "learn" being 37 years old and in your 19th season, what the **** ****? The 7'1 Kareem didn't even put max effort on defence at 37 but you expect the undersized LeBron or Melo to? Lmao.

****, you make accomodations for AD, a 28 year old, 6'11 man when he doesn't want to play center, but just tell Lebron to stfu and suit up

Lebron's 100% gonna get injured again at this rate.

Isn't this exactly what Houston did when they got Westbrook? They even traded a really good center for Covington in the process. They lost the rebounding and turnover battles as well, spammed more 3s while shooting a slightly better % and survived on elite iso scoring to post a positive point differential. Harden had to guard 4s to keep him engaged.

Vogel is doing the same thing with the best switchable defenders he has to put around LeBron and Russ.

Maybe throw Westbrook on centers and lure them to post ups, hoping Westbrook's strength can hold up?